Single screw flintlock

[debnal]

I would like to know how early a single screw lockplate could be.
Al

[cshirsch]

I have seen numerous flintlocks secured by one screw on early US arms.  They did it in England in the 1820s and before.  Many later flint era southern rifles used one screw.  Many New York and New England guns had one screw.  It was done more than most think.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

My Ketland fowler has but one screw and a hook on the forward end of the plate, engaging a screw head in the lock mortise.  It dates around 1780.

[Tanselman]

In the State of Kentucky, where I collect, I've seen single bolts on rifles as early as 1822...which would make me think a few probably were made that way a couple of years earlier. The use of a single bolt is first seen in Louisville, which had the Ohio River traffic and influences from back east earlier than most of the rest of Kentucky. Shelby Gallien